


When the Dragon Breaks

by AngstyChaosMagicUser



Category: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Gen, No beta we die like mne, Nonbinary Character, One Shot, Stream of Consciousness, Temporary Character Death, Time Shenanigans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-25
Updated: 2020-04-25
Packaged: 2021-03-01 16:47:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23830303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngstyChaosMagicUser/pseuds/AngstyChaosMagicUser
Summary: Sometimes, when the God of Time takes a vacation and tries to eat the world, there are a few… Technical difficulties, so to speak, here and there.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 21





	When the Dragon Breaks

A prisoner wakes up for the first time in a cart on the way to their execution.

They die, head rolling away.

\- They die, consumed in dragon fire - 

\- They die, the wooden building around them crumbling, sending them crashing to the ground - 

Everyone accepts something's about to go wrong, the next time. The wagon driver halts his horse and jumps out and  _ runs _ and the prisoners run too - 

The dragon comes looking.

The next time, it's like the first. No one remembers.

The prisoner makes it into the keep. Dies in their first battle - learns to fight - dies falling off a cliff - learns to be  _ careful _ \- the Imperials are ready for the dragon and have their archers stationed to fight it and the Stormcloaks freed to take up arms and it's not enough - the prisoner gets killed by a bear.

Being stealthy's hard. The prisoner's starting to wonder if this is normal. It's not like they remember anything else. The cart ride takes forever. The cart ride's over in an instant. The dragon burns the town eternally, the dragon flies off before it flies in, the fire burns back and forward and the town starts as ashes and burns up. 

The first time the prisoner makes it out of the cave, they're with Ralof. Which person they end up with while fleeing is kind of random and doesn't seem to change much, except maybe who they fight. Ralof crouches, watches for the dragon, and says - "We need to warn Riverwood. They don't even have a wall - "

The prisoner agrees, of course. They don't know where or what Riverwood is, but that dragon is really annoying.

Ralof repeats half his sentence, apparently not noticing, then turns to the prisoner. "Thanks for helping me get out of there," he says. "What's your name, by the way?"

"You know," the prisoner says, before the world shatters in dragonfire. But that hasn't happened yet, so the prisoner just continues with, "Hadvar asks me the same thing."

"I don't know."

And that's when the dragon circles back.

-

The way the world shivers and shatters seems to have accepted that the prisoner's out of the cave, at least, though the people they exit it with seem to be random. Usually Ralof or Hadvar. Sometimes a collection of scared villagers. Once Ulfric.

They usually make it to Riverwood without dying, after that. Talk to different people. Sometimes start shouting about a dragon, but explaining calmly seems to get this part over faster. They're still resetting to the cave, and they're getting sick of walking to Riverwood, except for the times when time forgets the 'walking to Riverwood' comes in between standing outside the cave and being in Riverwood. The prisoner figures out how to exploit that. Sometimes the other people slip through time with them. Sometimes they don't.

Sometimes people notice, even. People are getting scared. Even the ones who don't remember know something's up.

The prisoner doesn't pick a name.

-

Dragonsreach seems to be another shatterpoint. Good. The prisoner was getting sick of that dumb cave exit. The wizard seems confused between talking about a dragon breaking and talking about a dragon stoning and staring off into the distance, like there's three conversations or not conversations he's having on three different days and he keeps forgetting which it is. Understandable. The ex-prisoner isn't sure what day it is, either, and keeping timelines straight is apparently hard enough the timeline itself isn't bothering.

There's something about a stone, at least, in a cave, which the wizard tentatively thinks is important to the dragon question. Probably. He has a very good source on this.

The prisoner nods, asks where, and pokes the timeline so they're back in Riverwood hours earlier. Might as well show up with the rock.

In the future, the wizard's shocked by this, but then that timeline spirals off into incoherence.

-

The prisoner gets killed by bandits, and draugr, and spiders, and all sorts of ridiculous things.

This is really very annoying.

-

It's nighttime. The prisoner's falling up a cliff. The prisoner lands on a ledge, and walks backwards into a cave, down some stairs, to a stone wall with whispering carvings. Getting the undead mage guy to not reanimate's a bit tricky, but this time (?) the prisoner manages it, walking off with the stone and a barrow full of loot they don't have to bother going through getting.

Coherent timelines are overrated, they think.

-

The wizard is very surprised and complimentary when they get to Dragonsreach and already have the stone. 

And then a dragon attacks.

Different dragon, this time.

-

Eating souls is weird.

-

"If you're dragonborn, does that make Akatosh your dad - can you  _ please _ tell him to do his job - "

"Isn't Akatosh also a dragon?"

"Yeah, so?"

"What if he's mad at us - "

-

"Can someone tell Akatosh to cut it out."

"Don't disrespect the Divines like that - "

"I'm converting to Sheogorath worship. I'll disrespect who I want."

-

"Hey, if you're dragonborn, is Akatosh your father - "

"Maybe. Doesn't talk to me, though."

"Ah. Yeah. Get that. Never met my own old man…"

-

The vampires show up ahead of schedule. Even they're aware they're time displaced. They attack anyways.

They un-show up.

-

The prisoner runs into a bard. The prisoner hasn't done anything impressive yet.

"Can you  _ please _ choose a name, do you know how annoyingly hard it is writing a ballad about 'that guy' - it's bad enough this is a dragon break - "

The prisoner considers this. The prisoner shrugs.

The sun turns off.

The bard sighs.

The sun, sheepishly, flickers back on.

-

The prisoner ends up facing the second dragon again.

The dragon - whose soul the prisoner seems to have still counterfactually eaten - takes a long look at them and then flies off very fast.

The prisoner bounces back to where they  _ had _ been, on Solstheim.

-

People who died yesterday get up and walk around today. People know things they won't learn for a week, except they won't ever learn them because they'll be stopped but they know them anyways - 

Things are getting a bit chaotic, in most of the cities. Especially Markarth. 

The prisoner mostly steers clear of Markarth.

-

"Wasn't that skeleton over  _ there _ earlier?"

"Time's taking a break, and you're asking how the skeleton  _ of a dragon  _ moved?"

-

Some bandits the prisoner killed either tomorrow or a month ago surrender to Whiterun's guards. They want to take up dragon fighting.

Everyone's getting a bit sick of this.

-

The dragon priests lead their armies to wipe out all living beings.

There's a bit of a scramble, before that happens, to wall up the old tombs.

And a bit of a scramble to pray to Meridia. She seems to have a Champion, now, laser focused on killing undead. The prisoner wishes them luck.

-

Sheogorath thanks the prisoner profusely when they meet. This whole thing is hilarious, would you like some cheese?

The prisoner realizes they've never actually eaten.

They shrug and take a bite.

The cheese is poisoned.

-

"Think you kill me, in another timeline," someone says to the prisoner over drinks.

The prisoner shrugs. "Happens a lot."

The someone raises her mug. "Lots of people kill me. I'm more popular than I thought!"

The prisoner laughs, and taps their mugs together. "I'll drink to that."

-

A bard accosts the prisoner. "Would you  _ please _ pick a name - "

"My name is 'No,'" the prisoner says, grinning.

The bard groans.

-

"How many times have we had this conversation?" Sheogorath asks.

"No idea," the prisoner says. "It's always funny, though."

Sheogorath laughs and turns the table into a very annoyed snake.

-

"You ever wish history had happened to someone else?"

The prisoner considers this. "Maybe."

"Wouldn't be  _ me _ , though. In those non-historic times."

-

They find Serana. They stay with the Dawnguard; they betray the Dawnguard; they decide blotting out the sun's stupid actually (is that why it keeps flickering?) and stick with the Dawnguard for real the other times.

Serana seems to think the Break is funny, at least, and Isran stops arguing about accepting her into the Dawnguard after the fifth time.

-

The First Dragonborn is convinced that killing the Last Dragonborn will end the Dragon Break.

Curious, the prisoner stands still in front of one of Miraak's blows.

They wake up in a cart, on the way to their execution.

" _ Really? _ " everyone shouts.

The prisoner's going to kill Miraak, next time or times.

-

At least getting back to a less early time is easy from there. Politely, the prisoner takes the population of Helgen - usually dead - with them. The dragon burns an empty town.

-

Killing Alduin is anti-climatic.

The world stills. Behaves. The sun shines, and keeps shining, and doesn't jump around the sky. The timeline curls and shakes and starts to settle, like someone's finally paying enough attention to it.

The prisoner's not sure they like this.

But they can't go back.

-

"What'll you do now?"

They stare at the moons and stars, stable in their orbits, for a long moment.

"Vanish, I guess. Story seems neater, that way. Give the bards something to gossip about."

Their companion, disappointingly stable, smiles.

"I'll vanish with you, then."

-

The dragon curls around an hourglass.

There's cracks.

It's unclear if they're narrowing or widening.

But there's only a few, for now.


End file.
